The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has emerged from the recent brouhaha over the Abbott government’s proposed Medicare reforms as both a winner in the protection of doctors’ incomes and an apparent…

In the UK, surgeries are awarded points and additional funding for keeping patients healthy.
emanueletudisco photography/Flickr
September 3, 2014

Australia has a relatively strong health system by international standards, but it needs a makeover. To generate fresh ideas, The Conversation is profiling five international health systems that have important…

A lack of local professionals means rural health is already under pressure and the budget will only make things worse.
Len Matthews/Flickr
May 20, 2014

People living in remote and rural Australia already have a shorter life expectancies and higher rates of premature deaths. Last week’s federal budget will not only make that worse, it will introduce even…

Medicare Locals plan for better, tailored health services by drawing on local knowledge.
Image from shutterstock.com
January 20, 2014

Primary health care in Australia is a messy beast, with many heads and all sorts of body parts. But it’s centrally important because it plays a major role in achieving public health outcomes, such as better…

Peter Dutton and Tanya Plibersek at the National Press Club where, like the rest of the campaign, the parties seemed to vie to be blander.
Penny Bradfield/AAP
September 9, 2013

So far in this election campaign, the Coalition has provided dollar promises for worthy projects but no new health policy initiatives. The government has mentioned one policy of note – to remove family…

While independent, government-funded Medicare Locals are still in their embryonic form, opposition health spokesperson Peter Dutton has hinted that, if elected, a Coalition government would scrap the bureaucracies…

Until the Opposition releases its health policy, it’s impossible to know what will happen to the health reform agenda.
Alejandro Polanco
February 13, 2013

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced the federal election will be held in mid-September. So, what will happen to the ambitious program of health reform that the Labor government is in the process…

Medicare Locals have a big task, with a modest budget.
AAP/Dave Hunt
May 28, 2012

Opposition Health spokesman Peter Dutton has called Medicare Locals “an extra layer of bureaucracy”, and signalled the Coalition will remove them if it’s elected. His conclusion that they’re a waste of…

Medicare Locals are the primary health care flagship of the national health reforms being rolled out by the Labour Government.
AAP
November 6, 2011

Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced 38 new Medicare Locals last week, bringing the total eventual number of organisations to 62. But so few of us know what they are or what they will do. For starters…